Kevin MatiChek and Kevin Sampson each bring a measure of relative youth and experience to the 4th district aldermanic race, which will be decided on Tuesday, April 2.

MatiChek, 31, the incumbent, has served as alderman the past two years, while Sampson, 41, served the same district the previous two years. Both have ideas on what the city needs to do to improve in the near future.

Like much of the conversation around City Hall last year, the garbage fee came up again at the mayor’s debate last week and is an issue both Sampson and MatiChek addressed in interviews.

Sampson said there is a misconception on what the garbage fee really is.

“It’s a garbage fee in name only,” Sampson said. “The fee itself was designed to pay for all the other service areas that nobody wanted to get rid of.”

MatiChek is strongly critical of the $5-a-month fee, calling it “an improper tax,” especially on lower income families.

Sampson said the garbage fee couldn’t be called a tax, but “it got a bad light” because people thought the city was “doubling up for the amount that they’re (the city) charging me for my garbage pickup, but that’s not the case.”

Once the garbage fee does sunset after next year, the city has projected ever increasing deficits, which may lead to cuts in the 2014 and 2015 budgets. Sampson said everything needs to be on the table in regards to how to make up that projected deficit.

“I’d like to see fire, DPW (Department of Public Works), library, police” on the table, Sampson said. “I think we all have to continue to work together on the budget; there’s no easy way to do it.”

MatiChek has his own ideas on how to balance the deficit, and supports the use of compressed natural gas movemenntto fuel the city’s garbage trucks and other service vehicles as a way to lower costs for the city.

“I’m very excited about the direction of some of these projects and I’d like to be able to see them all the way through,” MatiChek said. “CNG burns cleaner than other fuels and alone would about halve the cost of fuel for city vehicles in addition to helping the environment.”

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MatiChek also said he is recommending city employees work a four-day, 10-hour week, which wouldn’t force employees to take a pay cut, but would give them an extra day to spend with families, which could help boost the area’s economy.

“We can build a stronger community by having families together an extra day during the week and also have them keep the wages they already earn,” MatiChek said.

MatiChek said he will introduce such a measure “within the near future.”

Sampson said the creation of the city administrator position was critical to the future of balancing the budget.

“We need to rely heavily on the city administrator position,” Sampson said. “When he (Jim Amodeo) comes to the council with recommendations on what to do, if there’s things that can be cut, trimmed back, restructured, whatever it is, I think we need to take his advice very strongly.”

Another key issue for the city of Sheboygan going forward is whether or not to downsize the Common Council. Some believe having 16 aldermen is far too many and have made recommendations to cut the amount to eight to save costs and make city government work more efficiently..

Sampson said he didn’t have an opinion one way or another on downsizing, but said he would have to look into details and take a look at what committees would still be relevant or necessary if the Council does shrink.

MatiChek said he doesn’t think there is a need to downsize because there are other ways to cut costs other than the $4,000-per-year salary paid to aldermen.

“My hope is that the current and future aldermen are into this for governing the city and not the pay,” MatiChek said.

Sampson said the city streets and the unemployment rate were two other areas Sheboygan needs to work on in the coming years.

“We need to start working closely with the existing businesses and find out why they like to be here and what things they could to to expand their current operations,” Sampson said. “A year and a half ago, we had great activity ... we haven’t had that in at least the past year that I can think of.”

MatiChek said he is opposed to cutting funding to some city services, particularly the Fire Department where he said the station in his district (Fire Station No. 1, at 833 New York Ave.) is the busiest in the city. Fire Chief Jeff Hermann has presented closing that station as a cost-saving option, saying the other four stations could cover the city.

“The amount of senior homes and the downtown, if that fire station is shut down or employees are cut, that’s a huge danger for the city,” MatiChek said.